Bjork's New Love

MICHAEL VAN DER HAM has a new fan in Bjork. The London-based designer has created two dresses for the star's Biophillia project, a series of live music and shoes as part of Manchester International Festival.

"After I designed a dress for her to be worn during an Inez and Vinoodh shoot last year, she contacted me to see if she could borrow a new dress right after my show for a dinner she was hosting at London Fashion Week - it was so exciting," Van der Ham told us. "Then, this year I invited her to my showroom in New York to have a look at my autumn/winter 2011 collection and now she has several pieces from the collection. I knew she was going on tour again, so I simply offered to do some special dresses that would fit the aesthetic of her new album."

Together the pair worked closely together to create two looks that would strongly reflect the singer's Biophillia tour.

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"She was quite specific that the visuals would have a lot of electric blue and copper colours, so that was my starting point," said Van der Ham. "It really was such a fun thing to do and it's such an honour she's wearing my designs. It's her most ambitious project so far, with amazing new technology."

The designer, who was last year snapped up by Liberty, says his love of Bjork has been an enduring one.

"I've been a fan of hers from when I was a kid" he said. "Her work is seminal. Nobody in music does what she does. I think she dresses really interestingly; I love how she mostly wears independent designers. I think it's so unfair the way she sometimes is portrayed in the press in silly worst dressed pages just because she doesn't look like any other singer or actress."